Severable sheet metal articles such as bottle sealing caps



Oct. 6, 1936. E. H. FABRICE SEVEBABLE SHEET METAL ARTICLES SUCHAS'BOTTLE SEALING CATS Filed Sept. 50, 1955 a 1 F r1 Patented Oct. 6,1936 UNITED STATES SEVERABLE SHEET LIETAL ARTICLES SUCH AS BOTTLESEALING CAPS Edward H. Fabrice; Chicago, Ill.,' assignor to- GuardianSafety Seal Company, Chicago,lll., a corporation of Illinois ApplicationSeptember 30, 1935, Serial No. 42,859

1 Claim.

This invention relates to improvements in sheet metal-structures, such,for example, as bottle seal.- ing caps which require destruction orseverancein order to effect unsealing of the bottles to which 5 they areapplied or, with respect to other uses of such devices to enable removalof the severed article from the object upon which it is mounted to beeffected easily and with certainty.

The sole object of the present invention is to provide a serverablesealing means composed of sheet metal, and exemplified in a severablebottle sealing cap, wherein an annular strip of the metal integral withthe body of the cap is so partly severed from said body as to be easilyseverable from the latter withoutcausing any burrs to be on either theportions of the body of the cap remaining after removal of said strip,or along the side edges of the said strip, thereby to obviate cutting offingers of the operator by. contact with no the exposed edges of theseveral disconnected parts of the structure.

. In the accompanying drawing, there is illus-' an embodiment of theinvention,

metal, such as sheet aluminum, foil, tin plate and the like, and, morecommonly, such caps have been equipped with integral removable strips orribbons of metal by bordering said strips or ribbons with a pair ofannular scorings. The latter have been produced,'as far as I aminformed, by cutting into the body of the sheet metal by means of rotarycutters or perforating means to weaken the same along the lines of cutor perforation.

Structures of this kind are exemplified in Let- .ters Patent to E. H.Fabrice, Nos. 1,771,034 and 1,798,151 and to Walter A. Stattmann,Letters Patent Nos. 1,481,034 and 1,481,035.

Owing to variations in thickness and density occurring frequently in themetal of which the cap is composed and also to the fact that the scoringor cutting tools become chipped or dull and,"

worn in a relatively short time, it has been found that in manyinstances the severable strip or rib- 'b0l1 bordered by the weakeninglines or scorings will tear out readily along some portions of the capwhereas at some points, due to conditions aforesaid, the strip or ribbonwill suddenly tear laterally and leaves. part thereof remaining integral5 with the body of the cap and diflicult of removal.

This is particularly true in instances of a chip or chips being brokenoutof the cutting or scoring tool which usually is not discoveredinstantly and therefore causes large numbers of imperfectly scored capsto be produced. Such chipping leaves the metal uncut orunscored at oneor more points and it is at such a point or points that the rip ortear-out strip is severed laterallywith the result that resort .to toolsmust be had to complete the severance of the cap.

The cutting or scoring tools penetrate the thin metal for only a fewthousandths of an inch and require very frequent repair or renewal byvery difiicult hand labor because of the almost microscopic dimensionsof the cutting or scoring means per se. This expense plus that resultingfrom failure of instant discovery of chipping or dulling of the saidscoring means which is productive of very appreciable waste, contributeto increases in cost of production of severable bottle caps.

Hence, an object of the invention is to provide a structure fallingwithin the scope of the present conception wherein the severing meansare produced by tools far less apt to chip or dull and which are morecheaply, easily and quickly repaired or replaced than those heretoforeused and which, accordingly, promotes lower cost of production of thearticles and permits discovery of flaws in the tools, such as chippingor dulling thereof more readily than is possible in the case of thecutting and scoring tools heretofore employed.

In the present invention, the severable strip or ribbon (A), of the cap(C), is offset bodily from the adjacent metal of the cap so that, forexample, in the case of the strip (A), the outer face of the same isoffset appreciably inwardly of and. out of alignment with the outer faceof the cap 45 immediately bordering the same. Said offset is relativelysharply defined and leaving visible and tangibly appreciable annularshoulders (E) and (F) bordering the said strip or ribbon (A). Similarly,the inner face of the strip (A) is equally relatively sharply offset toproject from the inner I face of the cap immediately bordering the sameand for a distance substantially equal to the depth of the offset of theouter face of said strip or ribbon from the outer face of the cap..

flush with or substantially coincident with the side edges of the stripor ribbon (A) com stituting the said shoulders and (F) respectively, andthrough as great a portion of the thickness of the metal as may berequisite and necessary to produce the desired weakening thereof alongthe lines or bordering the area of offset of one part of the metal fromthe other.

Obviously, in effecting such offsetting of metal,

that portion of the same which remains integral with both the body ofthe cap (C) and the strip or ribbon (A) is distorted or undergoes achange which contributes to a more ready verance of the strip or ribbon(A) from the bod of the cap (C) than appears to result'from the knifeedge impressions orscorings heretofore practiced in the art to weakenthe metal.

A further advantage of the present invention lies in the fact that theseverable strip or ribbon bordered by the shear cuts is more clearlyvisible and well defined than is the case with the type of severablecaps now in general use.

It has been found also that the tearing out of the strip or ribbon (A)leaves the edges of the remaining portions of the cap (C), bordering theshear cuts, free of burrs which tend to cut the fingers of personsremoving and replacing the crown portion of the cap after severance ofthe latter.

In the instance illustrated in Figs. 1 to 3 in clusive, the strip orribbon (A) terminates in'the digitally engageable tongue (G) which isintegral at one end with such'strip or ribbon (A), but

which, except at its points of junction with said strip or ribbon (A) iscompletely severed or struck out from the body of the cap (C). Saidstriking out of said tongue (G) is effected from the interior of the capand consequently leaves outwardly projecting burrs along the lines ofseverance of said tongues (G) from said caps.

Said burrs are particularly appreciable in the corners (H) and (I). Inorder to prevent contact of the fingers of the operator of the crownportions of the severed caps with the burrs at said corners (H) and (I),a pair of substantially semi-sphericalformations (J) are projectedoutwardly from the adjacent portions of the cap to a height suflicientto attain that result.

In the instances of Figs. 1, 2, and 3, where the strip or ribbon (A) isoffset inwardly from the body of the metal, it ispreferable that thediameter of the cap be increased and, as said caps are intended to andusually do fit the bottle necks very accurately, it is desirable tooffset the metal adjoining said strip or ribbon (A) outwardly from thebody of the balance of the cap, as indicated by the annular beads (K),the latter being somewhat exaggerated in the instance illustrated, so asto leave an annular space between the strip or ribbon (A) and theopposed portion of the bottle neck which is not necessarily left in themanufactured article.

It will be noted in the several'figures of the drawing that the loweredge portion of the cap is secured upon the bottle neck by forcing saidlower edge portion into an annular recess in the bottle neck asindicated at'(T) in Figs. 1, 2, and 3.

It will be noted, as illustrated, that the offset edges bordering thelines of severance of the metal are disposed in planes substantiallyperpendicular to the face of the body of the structure. v The preferredembodiment of the invention is illustrated in Figs. 1, 2, and 3, whereinthe strip (A) is offset inwardly from the outer face of the cap and thetongue (G) is projected outwardly for digital engagement, for the reasonthat in the progressive removal of the strip (A), all burrs, if any,will be disposed appreciably inwardly from the outer face :of thestructure and, therefore, will not contact with the fingers oftheoperator. I claim as my invention:

A bottle sealing cap composed of a single piece of relatively hard andappreciably resilient sheet metal comprising cup-like formationincluding a substantially cylindrical skirt portion adapted to receivetelescopically the, terminal end portion of a bottle neck, said skirtportion equipped with skirt portion. said planes being common to saidshoulders and to the upper and lower walls of the annular recess in theouter face of the cap of which, said annular portionconstitutes thebottom, there being a slot in said skirt portion intersecting andbordering the same in part and defining a digitally engageable endportion of said annular portion.

EDWARD H. FABRIC]!-

